Notes: Dilophosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs to feature in Jurassic Park. It gets its name from the two thin crests of bone that it sports on the top of its head, which are used as a display for courtship purposes. Dilophosaurus is nocturnal, hunting only at night (and sometimes early in the morning). We have found that Dilophosaurs are mostly ambush predators that live in the most remote parts of the jungle. This elusive predator spends the daylight hours sleeping in the foliage near rivers and streams in the dense jungle, out of sight of larger predators.

They are very inquisitive, likely a characteristic that gave these Jurassic age dinosaurs the edge over other reptiles of the day. As an early predatory dinosaur, Dilophosaurus does not have forward facing eyes, and thus it lacks stereo vision. They hunt in small packs, using scent as an integral part of their hunting techniques. Young Dilophosaurs can be deceptively harmless, but they are just as dangerous as their full grown counterparts. Nicknamed the “Spitter” by InGen staff, it is one of the most difficult dinosaurs to handle.

The connection between the premaxillary and maxillary bones of fossil specimens was very weak. This created a notch behind the first row of teeth. This information led to the early hypothesis that Dilophosaurus scavenged off dead carcasses, with the front teeth being too weak to bring down and hold large prey.

Dr. Wu decided to use frill-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii) DNA in combination with amphibian DNA to fill in the gaps in the degraded Dilophosaur genome, as he found it to be a particularly good fit with certain gene sequences, and he hoped the frill or at the very least, the aggressiveness of Chlamydosaurus would give the Dilophosaurs an edge in the face of larger predators on Isla Sorna. The frill can be expanded like a cobra's hood when the animal is feeling threatened or about to attack. It was partly expected, and is a means for them to intimidate larger animals that may attempt to steal their food. But the venom was a surprise. This ability to spit venom may have been due to Dr. Wu also using snake DNA (most likely spitting cobra) to fill in other gaps in the Dilophosaur genome.

The venom is a toxic cocktail of seven different enzymes, which cause extreme pain and irritation, resulting in rapid blindness and eventually paralysis. Dilophosaurus is able to spit its venom with great accuracy from quite a distance (in some rare cases as far as fifteen meters). They can also introduce venom to a prey item by biting, but they rarely do so in order to avoid the risk of injury. In this way the animal is still a predator despite its weak teeth and jaws.

Both the frill and the venom glands (under the tongue) are the direct result of InGen scientists splicing the Dilophosaur DNA with that of an Australian frill-necked lizard and some form of venomous snake (such as the spitting cobra).

They were using amphibian DNA, right? And some amphibians would have frill-like gills to adulthood and those species would have expressed neoteny, expressing juvenile traits at even adulthood (one such species is the Axolotl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl). Basically, I think that the dilophosaurs were given some of the genetic stuff to develop the "frill gills", BUT only enough to bring up some of the physical parts of it and none of the respiratory component. And with some mutations, the frills became webbed and makes the false gills like the frill of a frilled lizard.

Certain genes that influence one thing can be linked to other, unrelated physical traits. For instance; I vaguely recall reading something about how during domestication of wolves into dogs, when breeders selected for changes in behaviour (like tameness) it also resulted in changes in physical appearance or phenotype (like droopy/floppy ears as opposed to pointy ears that stand up). When you select for one trait, you flip the on switch for several other traits as well (so to speakl).

The same could be going on here: InGen scientists could have noticed that the genes from an Australian frill-necked lizard (that related to sex) were a perfect match to repair the damaged sex chromosomes in the Dilophosaurus DNA. Unbeknownst to them, those genes were also linked to the frill in the lizard (which originally evolved to impress a female but is also utilized as a method of frightening off a potential predator). As a result; the JP Dilophosaurs were endowed with an impressive frill. Though the scientists at InGen knew this could only have come from the foreign DNA, they decided to leave it be, as it made for an exotic addition to Jurassic Park.

I tried to make what InGen did with their Dilophosaurs as obvious as possible. It basically stemmed from people trying to tell me that the frill was the result of InGen splicing in King Cobra DNA. Though I agree that maybe the spitting abilities of the Dilophosaur could have come from Cobra DNA (And in the future I might add a silhouette of a spitting cobra to show this), I don’t think the frill can be explained by anything other than InGen using Australian Frill-neck Lizard DNA (as the shape/function is nearly identical in both animals).

Yes, but accuracy isn’t really the point of Jurassic park. I think the movie captured that in far more detail then the book (though in the book the Dilophosaurus was still capable of spitting venom; an ability for which there is no evidence in the fossil record). The dinosaurs of Jurassic park are transgenics, and as such they displayed characteristics of both the original dinosaurs they were cloned from and the birds/crocs/lizards/and amphibians that they were spliced with to fill the gaps in their DNA...

awesome man, again a very nice. I think I will do one too maybe...By the way, I know you hate constantly beeing asked what is next(I know that first hand because I also get constantly asked about my jp expanded sereis) but I wanted to know if you are also going to make a carcharodontosaurus for jurassic park. I would really want to see a jp carcharodontosaurus by you,cause so far i wasnt able to draw one , I tried it now over 4 times and I never got it right.....

Can’t wait. There honestly aren’t enough images of this awesome movie creature out there (especially when compared to the abundance of fan art depicting the predator or xenomorph aliens)...

Not at all man. The reason I complained about that in the past was because it was the same two people commenting on every new InGen File with the same BS. Basically something along these lines; “Oh hey, cool.” Or “Good job man” essentially just lip service. And then (without fail) ask; “So what’s next?” It just got incredibly annoying...

You’re different. We can converse and critique each others’ work, and inspire each other to do better. I can say with confidence that very rarely do I come across an image like your Troodon that makes me want to draw the animal too. And look at the result!

To answer your question, yes I do intend on making a Carcharadontosaurus InGen File. I plan on making a file for every JP animal seen/implied in the movies (like the Metriacanthosaurus for example) or mentioned in the books. Also any dinosaur to feature in the Operation Genesis game, Telltales game, or the Lost world SEGA arcade Game. It’s a big project, but hopefully it will come in handy for people working on JPIV.

I think you might see an accurate paleo-graphic reconstruction of Carcharadontosaurus before you see an InGen File of this animal though, as I have been working on a re-make of this [link] for a while and I have yet to start work on the Carcharadontosaurus InGen File...

wow, I really cant wait to see the carcharodontosaurus, while reading your comment I got reallly excited to try to make another carcharodontosaurus, maybe it will work this time. I also want to include many of the operation genesis game, I will als try to make an acrocanthosaurus and albertosaurus. But I really have to overwork my older pics, if I now look back and see what mistakes in terms of anatomy and colouring I made, I cant eventhink that I made them because some look so bad...